Global Health Diagnostics March Newsletter

Welcome to the second Global Health Diagnostics (GHD) Newsletter, an initiative designed to keep our members to date with the latest from GHD, including information on the most recent articles, discussions and website progress. All newsletters will be made available for viewing on the website as a ‘Blog’ and can be found through the ‘Community’.Resources: A number of new resource articles have been made available, including:1. Improving the Diagnostic Ecosystem: A Critical Step in Controlling the TB Epidemic in India and Globally (M. Pai) 2. Rapid Syphilis Test Toolkit (H. Kelly, K. Sollis, E. Downe, R. Peeling) 3. Syphilis Control- A Continuing Challenge (E. W. Hook III, R. Peeling) 4. Towards a point-of-care test for active tuberculosis (R. McNerney, P. Daley) Our library of resources is continuing to grow.Please send us your suggestions for articles and we will do our best to obtain permission to make them available to all GHD’s members.Discussion Groups: Our first Discussion with an Expert has come to a close after Dr. Madhukar Pai spent two weeks answering questions on Tuberculosis Serology Tests. The discussion can be viewed here: http://globalhealthdiagnostics.tghn.org/community/groups/group/expertdiscussion_tb/If you have any further questions on Tuberculosis Serology or general questions on testing for Tuberculosis, Ruth McNerney, Senior Lecturer in Pathogen Biology and Diagnostics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is guiding our discussion on Tuberculosis Diagnostics available through the following link: http://globalhealthdiagnostics.tghn.org/community/groups/group/tuberculosis/.On March 12 we will be launching our second Discussion with an Expert as Dr. David Mabey, Professor of Communicable Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Dr. Adele Benzaken, Alfred da Matta Foundation and FIOCRUZ/ Amazonas, will be responding to questions and guiding discussion on control of congenital syphilis. The discussion will be available through Community>> Groups>> Discussion with an Expert: Control of Congenital Syphilis.Both Dr. Mabey and Dr. Benzaken were involved in a seven country project assessing the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of implementing rapid syphilis tests and have a great deal of experience in the field. References on the control of congenital syphilis and syphilis rapid tests are available in Resources and more will be added in the coming days. This discussion will begin March 12 and last until March 28, so begin preparing your questions.Workspaces: The first workspace, Elimination of Congenital Syphilis, has been created in the Community. We will be posting examples SOPs and protocols used in a control programme for congenital syphilis. We welcome your comments and suggestions for how to improve and optimize these documents, and your experiences- what has worked in your country and setting, what did you do differently?On March 1st the Global Congenital Syphilis Partnership was launched in London and on the back of this, this month we will be highlighting Congenital Syphilis Control on Global Health Diagnostics. It is estimated that two million pregnant women are infected with syphilis every year and that over half of these pass it on to their unborn children. If untreated during pregnancy, syphilis can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, low birth weight and even the death of newborns.The Partnership, which brings together the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine, Save the Children, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation and support from the World Health Organization, is a three-year initiative to help countries intensify their efforts towards eliminating congenital syphilis.Global Health Diagnostics, Website Coordinator